Respect at school in decline, survey shows

9:05 AM,
Jan. 23, 2014

Amy Lawson, a fifth-grade teacher at Silver Lake Elementary in Middletown, Del., helps student Melody Fritz with an English language arts lesson Oct. 1, 2013. The percentage of respondents in a Harris Poll who agreed with the statement "students respect teachers" dropped from 79% to 31%.

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USA TODAY

Compared with when they were students, Americans today believe that there's a lot less respect in the hallways of the nation's schools.

A new Harris Poll out Thursday finds that fewer adults believe teachers respect parents or students and that fewer believe parents and students respect teachers. In other words, just about every relationship in a school has soured a bit.

In a first-of-its-kind survey, Harris asked 2,250 adults last fall to compare their memory of "school dynamics" when they were students with today. The percentage of respondents who agreed with the statement "students ...